I'm a strategy consultant in the mobile industry, but I'm also a deliberate outsider. I've spent many years as a tech reporter for BBC TV News and Engadget, while also making regular appearances as a pundit on Bloomberg, CNBC, Sky and Al Jazeera. These days I work for tech startups that need a detached pair of eyes, and that are brave enough to try something different. My clients include Yota Devices (makers of the unique, dual-screen YotaPhone) and GameBench (developers of the first "uncheatable" app that measures the real-world usability of mobile devices.) As always, my blog posts and opinions are purely my own.

Another glamorous party in London; another influx of Samsung PCs to suit every conceivable taste. But one sort of machine was conspicuous by its absence. Out of five new computers revealed by the manufacturer, not a single one ran on Windows RT.

In fact, Samsung executives gleefully turned RT’s truancy into a selling point on stage. European head of marketing Patrick Povel took every opportunity to tell the audience that the latest ATIV-branded PCs can “run all your software” because they come with “the full version of Windows 8 and not the RT version.”

Samsung wasn’t always so down on MicrosoftMicrosoft’s project to push a hobbled version of Windows for ARM-powered devices. Last year’s batch of ATIV PCs actually included an RT model, called the ATIV Tab.

Since then, however, the manufacturer’s enthusiasm seems not only to have waned (it decided against trying to sell the ATIV Tab in the States, for example), but to have completely evaporated. And when you look at the latest generation of ATIVs, it’s pretty easy to understand why.

Take the ATIV Tab’s replacement, the ATIV Tab 3 (shown at the top of this article), as a starting point: it’s a solid illustration of how full Windows 8 can be implemented on a truly mobile device, without recourse to the ARM architecture and without severing of support for regular Windows applications.

The ATIV Tab 3 houses an IntelIntel Atom processor that allows it to be thinner and lighter than an iPad, despite having the same 10.1-inch screen size, and it ought to have comparable battery life too. It’s not cheap at $700, but it comes bundled with a Surface-like keyboard cover, Samsung S-Pen stylus and full MS Office, so it’s not expensive either.

In other words, the ATIV Tab 3 makes Windows RT look like a solution to a problem that no longer exists; a reaction to the old stereotype that x86 can’t go mobile. What’s more, as reported previously, Intel is buckling down on Atom for tablet PCs and is promising big performance gains in the next generation of chips (which might be the only good reason not to buy an ATIV Tab 3 at this time). AMD is also honing in on the need for mobile Windows 8 with its Temash chip, which will likely offer much better 3D performance (e.g., for gaming) at the expense of battery life.

In the face of these low-power x86 choices, which are optimized for full Windows 8 and will be able to run pretty much any software users want — from third-party browsers like Chrome and Firefox (both effectively barred from RT), down to the various utilities that many people and organizations have come to rely on — Windows RT barely has a role to play.

And yet, Microsoft refuses to retreat from it. If anything, it’s doubling down. The next big Windows update will bring Outlook for RT, representing a significant push on the software side. Meanwhile, in terms of hardware, rumors this week have suggested that Surface RT, Microsoft’s own implementation of an RT-based tablet, will not only get a sequel, but may get multiple sequels with different ARM-based processors and price points.

Microsoft’s continued promotion of RT might sound counter-intuitive to anyone who followed Samsung’s rhetoric yesterday, and history might prove Redmond’s continued investment to be a mistake. Then again, it’s equally possible that Microsoft has finally identified RT’s one remaining hope: to become the platform of choice for those who simply want an ultra-cheap way of running Microsoft Office (with any other apps being a bonus).

If Redmond can successfully tweak its licensing fees and marketing emphasis to promote “Office machines” in the region of $200 to $300, such that they can go head-to-head with Amazon’s “Kindle machines” but with a greater emphasis on productivity, then perhaps, in the future, even Samsung might make room for an RT player on its squad.

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